Walked out the back door and saw this hanging in front of me from the patio roof.  Spider caught a stink bug which was bigger than the spider.  Spider was hanging from one thread and the stink bug would get its wings free and try to fly away but the spider held on.  Quite amazing to see but glad I didn't walk into it.

 

 

 

While I had the camera I noticed three hawks gliding on the wind currents over the house.  The hawks take care of some of the varmints in the back yard.  Could only catch two in the frame and it isn't the best picture.  Was fun to watch for a while.

 

 

 

 

today has started out as a good day for you...

Red Tailed Hawks are quite common around here. When I was in high school, my vocational teacher had a Red Tailed Hawk as a "pet". He would sometimes bring it into the shop and we could get a closeup look at these magnificent creatures. It wasn't until much later in life that I had the opportunity to really see how beautiful they were.

 

A couple of years ago, Mimi and I were headed out to do some Christmas shopping. I usually drive all of the "back roads", when we go somewhere. I rounded a blind turn and there in the road set a young Red Tail. I slowed down but he didn't move. Pulled off to the side of the road and got out of the car- still didn't move. He then hopped across the road near me. I crouched down and slowly moved towards him. He allowed me to pick him up- I held his wings down- he never tried to escape or acted aggressively. He simply stared me. I couldn't see any injuries.  All this time Mimi was cowering in the car! I eventually talked her into going to a nearby house and asking for something to place over his head so he would not get excited. Now what do you do when you have a hawk in both hands and a frantic wife??? We decided to take him to the vets to have him checked over. While I held him- making sure the talons didn't touch my legs- Mimi drove to the nears animal hospital. Here's where the story gets amazing, the vet asked me why I bothered to help the hawk and that they couldn't do anything for us because they weren't licensed to treat raptors and we should leave. On to the next animal hospital, here we get a little more help- a box to put the hawk (my arms were getting pretty tired at this point) and directions to the only local certified raptor veterinarian- 11 miles away- oh by the way they close in 10 minutes. Luckily Mimi has taken driving lessons from Mario Andretti so we made it with a couple of minutes to spare. They accepted the hawk. The vet said these creatures get "tunnel vision" when going after prey and don't see what's happening around them. He thought the hawk probably had a glancing blow with a car. 

 

Anyway, the animal hospital called about a week later saying the hawk recovered and was released back into the wild.

 

I felt really good.

Edited October 17, 20169 yr by lew